Far From the Tree: Parents, Children and the Search for Identity

(One of the New York Times Book Review's Ten Best Books of 2012) From the author of the National Book Award winner and Pulitzer Prize finalist The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression comes this monumental new work—a decade in the writing—about family. Andrew Solomon tells the stories of parents who have not only learned to deal with their exceptional children, they have also found profound meaning in doing so. In writing about 300 families coping with deafness, dwarfism, Down syndrome, autism, schizophrenia, and multiple severe disabilities, as well as with children who are prodigies, who are conceived in rape, who become criminals, or who are transgender, Solomon's startling proposition is that our diversity is precisely what unites us all. Far from the Tree explores themes of generosity, acceptance, and tolerance, all rooted in the insight that love can transcend every prejudice.

"Andrew Solomon has written a brave and ambitious work, bringing together science, culture and a powerful empathy. Solomon tells us that we have more in common with each other—even with those who seem anything but normal—than we would ever have imagined."—Malcolm Gladwell